Gone in 60 Seconds

Gone in 60 Seconds is a 1974 American action film written, directed, produced by, and starring H. B. Halicki. The film centers on a group of car thieves and the 48 cars they must steal in a matter of days. It is known for having wrecked and destroyed 93 cars in a 40-minute car chase scene, one of the longest in film history. A total of 127 cars were either destroyed or damaged throughout the entirety of the film. A loose remake with new characters and a different plot was released in 2000, starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie. Plot Maindrian Pace is a respectable insurance investigator who runs an automobile chop shop in Long Beach, California. He is also the leader of a professional car theft ring that steals and resells stolen cars, disguising them using vehicle identification numbers, engines, parts, and details (such as parking decals and bumper stickers) sourced from legitimately purchased wrecks. As an insurance industry insider, Pace has one small idiosyncrasy: all vehicles stolen must be insured. Pace meets a South American drug lord who offers $200,000 up front, with an additional $200,000 upon completion of delivery, in exchange for the theft of 48 specific vehicles to be delivered to the Long Beach docks within five days. The list ranges from limousines and semi-trailer trucks to vintage cars and exotics, rendering the order difficult to fill within the time limit. Nevertheless, Pace is confident that the order can be fulfilled by the deadline. Mapping out a basic strategy, the thieves scout out their vehicular targets, all of which have been given female code names. The plan goes smoothly—with even some of the more eclectic vehicles acquired with relative ease—but obstacles begin to mount. Chief of these difficulties is a yellow 1973 Ford Mustang, codenamed "Eleanor". The first Eleanor Pace comes across is occupied by its driver, so he steals it from the owner's house after dark and discovers it is owned by Harold Dwight Smith, a corrupt senior manager for a large insurance corporation.